Local school districts are close to meeting all of the state-mandated digital and technology goals. Now they'll just need the money to get them across the finish line.

They've received some financial help from the state, but not enough to get them to reaching those goals.

This year's state-passed K-12 budget gave $40 million in digital classroom dollars to school districts to help with their technology upgrades and purchases. Every school district received at least $250,000.

The digital push is due to classrooms transitioning to the new Florida Standards — a modified version of Common Core State Standards — which require a more technology-driven academic environment.

But in Lee, the allocation doesn't come halfway to covering the need.

The state's ninth-largest school district received about $964,000 in aid, said Ami Desamours, Lee's assistant superintendent of business and finance.

Lee is already predicting that the digital changes, starting this year, will cost between $17 million and $24 million a year for the next 10 years, Desamours said.

Collier County schools received $608,349, said Luis Solano, the district's associate superintendent of curriculum and instruction, in an email.

However Collier doesn't have a figure for how much the technology mandates will cost Collier, but they are undergoing an analysis, he said.

Buy Photo

(Photo: Andrew West/The News-Press, Andrew West/ The News-Press)

Districts have spent the past few years ramping up bandwidth, increasing Wi-Fi areas and creating technology policies in an effort to meet state demands.

Those demands require districts to have a computer or tablet available for every student in a class, especially because 50 percent of all instructional materials purchased by school districts are required to be digital by 2015.

By the 2017-18 school year, districts will be required to have a 1-to-1 student to computer ratio. No easy feat for Lee with 86,000 students and growing enrollment.

But when it comes to the next transition — purchasing digital textbooks, buying devices — the state education department has been silent on just what items districts should purchase.

"The biggest expansion will be in student devices," Alton said. "As far as infrastructure, we're in good shape ... we'll continue expanding bandwidth and we'll still look at trying to get more student devices."

Technology is funded through capital dollars, which also go toward facilities and maintenance. This school year, Lee budgeted about $13.6 million for technology. However, capital dollars are also needed to address the need for additional schools.

Collier is budgeting about $22 million in technology for this upcoming school year, according to the district's latest capital improvement plan.

When it comes to the infrastructure, Lee and Collier counties consider themselves prepared for the transition.

Lee's new Bring Your Own Device policy works fine for students who want to use their own iPads, Samsung Galaxy's or ASUS tablets for studying in school, but only school-owned devices can be used for testing.

Alton said Lee isn't ready to recommend a platform or device strategy for the district. But it is something it expects to have by the end of the calendar year.

Collier County launched a BYOD program last year and put out a list of suggested smartphones and tablets parents could look into purchasing for students. They also have encouraged community members and businesses to donate those items to district.

But there have already been some kinks in the transition.

Earlier this year, some districts, including Collier, saw issues with online testing. In late April, during the middle of state testing, schools across the state reported online issues. Pearson, the company that administers the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, experienced difficulty with a hosting provider that caused issues with accessing the testing website.

"Given that the state vendor will change next school year and the exact format for next year's testing is still not finalized, we will not be able to estimate the testing requirements across the district accurately at this time," Solano said.

Next spring, students will take a new state exam written by the nonprofit American Institutes for Research. According to the state education department, one of the reasons why AIR was selected was due to the minimal bandwidth and technical support needed to deliver the exams to students.

Connect with this reporter:

@AshASmithNews

Tech and Digital Requirements for School Districts

• School districts are expected to have a computer or tablet for every student in the class

• 50% of all instructional material purchased by school districts in fall 2015 should be digital